


(You) Loved The Stars Too Fondly

by leafiest_groves



Series: ☆ 𝓟𝓙𝓞/𝓗𝓞𝓞 𝓛𝓮𝓼𝓫𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓼 ☆ [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, CONGRATS ON FINISHING THE FIC OLD SPORT, F/F, Genderbending, Girls Kissing, I Made Myself Cry, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Memory Loss, Mutual Pining, Temporary Amnesia, Useless Lesbians, a lot of crying, fem!jercy for the soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafiest_groves/pseuds/leafiest_groves
Summary: Do you remember me?Of course Pandora remembers. It's magic, after all.
Relationships: Female Percy Jackson/Female Jason Grace
Series: ☆ 𝓟𝓙𝓞/𝓗𝓞𝓞 𝓛𝓮𝓼𝓫𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓼 ☆ [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1903603
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	(You) Loved The Stars Too Fondly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [parker_kingofbees](https://archiveofourown.org/users/parker_kingofbees/gifts).



> Congratulations! Finally, our wild 17 chapter long ride is over, and I loved every moment of it. As promised, here's your part 2, old sport, know that I am immensely proud of you, and always will be.

_The name certainly suits her._

It had been the first thing Pandora thought after hearing this sweet girl introduce herself so shyly.

Jacynthe would’ve been horrified at such a notion, but Pandora was blessedly unaware of this. Where Jacynthe, sweet, naive Jacynthe, had only been shown the destruction she held in her soul every waking moment of her life, Pandora had watched from afar, and had seen things she could never describe as anything but beautiful.

The first time she had ever laid eyes on Jacynthe, she’d been at the shimmering surface, confused at the appearance of a figure among the clouds. Oh, what she saw next, she was _still_ unprepared for. 

Such a perfect creature as Pandora had seen that day, she wouldn’t have been able to explain to anyone.

Diving falcon-like from between the wispy clouds that hung above them in the velvet light, was - quite truly, in Pandora’s eyes - an angel. A billowing chiton heaved at her feet, the shawl about her shoulders rippled in the gale she had whipped around her with her bare hands, and honey-like hair flowed out behind her, quite like a silk wrap shaken in the sunlight. The vivid pinks and reds of the sky were much softer over their mistress, dappling her like a sketch layered with blooming watercolor.

Not for the first time, Pandora wished desperately that she were an artist, if only to have a beauty like this stare back at her, lifelike in an artist’s skill. More truthfully, she wanted to have this unknowable, unreachable being to look at her just once. 

The wash of late daylight painted a madonna-esque halo around her, and by some miracle, Pandora was near enough to shore to witness it. There was a tattoo - no, a branding - on her arm, and Pandora may very well have mistaken her for one of Aphrodite’s priestesses if not for one detail: the letters SPQR just under the bend of her elbow.

_Her eyes,_ Pandora had thought miserably, _I didn_ _’_ _t see her eyes._

Perhaps it was that desperation that pushed her to learn about this girl, if only from the sidelines. She only had a year left of living with her father before he’d send his ‘only demigod daughter’ back to camp, back to the life of quests and near death, and she couldn’t bring herself to leave this unfinished and unknown to her. She wasn’t disappointed with what she learnt. 

_She can fly._

_She can talk to wolves._

_She runs faster than anyone I've seen in my life._

_She_ _…_ _isn't a greek half-blood?_

_She's Jupiter's daughter._

_She's Thaddeus'_ _sister. She doesn't know he's alive._

_She writes poetry. It's beautiful._

_She's Juno's champion._

_She's never been in the ocean, but she still loves watching from the shore._

_She loves the stars. She wishes on the first star every night._

It was nigh on unbearable to know all this, and yet, be seperated by an intangible distance. Why? Why was fate so very cruel to her? Why did it tug constantly at her heart, holding this temptation with such a sweet secret so near and yet so far from her reach? Pandora knew she wasn’t the luckiest. She supposed it was a consequence of the name. Her mother had given it to her in the hope that like Lady Pandora herself, no matter the evil unleashed on the world, she would always have hope. 

What she hadn’t been betting on was Pandora’s curiosity being more than befitting of her namesake. 

_Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it satisfaction brought it back._

Pandora didn’t think it was humanly possible to be satisfied with her position. Why would it be? To come so close and yet never come close enough, it was an unbearable wanting and pining that strangled her from the inside.

_Maybe I should wish on the stars too._

Jacynthe’s high opinions of the stars perhaps had truth to them. 

That very night, she’d locked eyes with her angel, unable to tear her gaze away from them. Conversely, she couldn’t get enough. She couldn’t ever see enough of her angel, not in this lifetime or the next. Like Pygmalion wasting away over his beloved Galatea, Pandora was more than ensnared, whether Jacynthe knew it or not.

_Do you remember me?_

The words wouldn’t be stopped, they just forced their way out of her. Pandora nearly winced the moment she’d said it. Her father had remarked on her lack of self control rather condescendingly before, while she was still young. 

_Words cease to be your own the moment they leave your mouth. They belong to anyone who_ _’_ _s ever heard them._

Pandora almost thought herself silly. It had only been a week since she had seen Jacynthe last, certainly she would know her still. Yet, in the silky light that cut through the low, rolling fog, a blinding smile met her arrival on the beach. 

Jacynthe was lost to her love for Pandora. She wouldn’t be stopped now.

Pandora didn’t have to hold her tongue. Jacynthe wanted to hear her. Wanted to hear the voice of the siren that had called her to the shore for so long. 

_Do you remember me?_

“How could I ever forget you?” 

Jacynthe looked happier than she had in weeks when she came back from the beach. Lupa may have had no idea why her daughter insisted on running to the shore after her month-long quest, but a mermaid that swam the waters along that shore knew very well. Jacynthe returned from her quest more scarred and more exhausted than ever, but she was happy, unbearably happy.

_Do you remember me?_

“I’m leaving soon…but I want you know that even if I’m not here in person, you can’t ever forget me, alright?” 

Jacynthe can’t quite explain the tightness in her chest when she hears Pandora say that. But her siren has a life outside of this little bubble of childlike love and excitement, and even if she never wants to let her go, a much stronger part of her knows that she wouldn’t ever want to take away Pandora’s freedom in any small way. It was part of what drew her to Pandora to begin with. 

Pandora leaves the beach and heads for camp with lipstick smudged over her cheek. For the life of her, she can’t figure out why it won’t rub off. Jacynthe’s quiet smile to herself gives it away to nobody but herself. 

She wore waterproof lipstick for a reason.

_Do you remember me?_

The song Jacynthe swears she can hear is so distinctly _hers._ There is no other way to describe it. When she races to the shore for the first time in nearly a year, she’s there. 

_She came back for me._

Is it embarassing that a praetor should be brought to tears by seeing her come back? Maybe. It certainly isn’t as if Jacynthe cares. Quite shamelessly, she muffles a soft sob in her sleeves, wiping at her eyes and burying her face in the crook of Pandora’s neck. Pandora is here for her. She’s here in truth and in flesh, real as ever, and her touch is _so loving_ and _so familiar_. 

The night sky glints overhead while Pandora shifts from siren to young woman, taking her first shaky steps on this beach toward Jacynthe. “Hold my arm for me, I haven’t done this in weeks.” 

It’s the first time Pandora has ever done something like this for anybody. She knows why, and the words are pulling at her again, demanding to be freed from being merely thoughts in her mind. 

_I love you, gods, I love you._

For once, Pandora holds her tongue. She regrets it.

When she arrives at Camp Jupiter at Juno’s behest, she knows that it’s not right. It feels wrong. Something isn’t the same. 

After a day or two’s worth of begging and pleading, she finally gets her answer. Jacynthe is gone. 

Is it embarassing that she should be brought to tears by this news? Maybe. It certainly isn’t as if Pandora cares.

_I loved you. I love you still. I never got to tell you angel, and I'm so sorry._

The days pass in a blur, in limbo. There are friends to keep her company, there are quests that demand her attention, there are memories and pictures for her to admire, but they mean nothing.

She doesn’t know that Jacynthe feels the same, on the opposite coast. She doesn’t know, and it haunts her, mocks her in her daydreams, that the one chance she has doesn’t mean anything. 

The branding on her own arm is both familiar and unfamiliar. She remembers so many nights spent tracing over the lines on Jacynthe’s arm, feeling such pride that her angel has earned every single one of them. She doesn’t feel like she’s earned or found a thing since she got here. 

Remembering the little miracles that brought her angel to her, Pandora wishes on the stars alone that night. She spends nigh on an hour begging the pleiades to bring her angel back to her. She doesn’t know if her luck has run out, but she wishes nonetheless. 

_Do you remember me?_

Jacynthe’s voice, regrettably, shakes. She can’t stop herself. Despite nearly sixteen years of keeping a perfect poker face, she can’t hold herself together in front of Pandora. 

Pandora says nothing, as if simply drinking her in. 

Jacynthe very nearly cries, but Pandora pulls her closer while they both fall to their knees, and her lips are _so, so, soft._

Pandora tilts her by the chin, an arm around her waist to hold her firmly. Jacynthe’s arms reach round Pandora’s shoulders of their own accord, linking over her back while her eyes flutter shut. 

There’s an exclamation from somewhere behind them, but the only thing Jacynthe can hear is the quiet ‘I love you’ that Pandora mumbles against her lips, and the sound of lightning striking across Oakland hills while rolling ever nearer to them. There’s a wash of dark clouds that drape over the sky like a curtain pulled for privacy, and the rain tumbles down earthward. 

“I love you too,” she sobs, forehead pressed to Pandora while the damned tears well up in her eyes. “I missed you so, so, much.” 

The pearl is nestled into the hollow of Jacynthe’s throat, hammering against her skin though her rapid pulse. 

“I wished on the stars for you, you know?” Pandora murmurs, and her eyes are soft where her voice is rough with unshed tears. “You always did love the stars.” 

**Author's Note:**

> guys help I think I want to keep writing this story lajhdnagbwraehugjlimfjlkghnfjka


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